Diet update and bangs for life

Lucy and me. And Lucy's gum, which she wanted to make sure showed in the picture.

For enquiring minds who want to know, here's where I stand on the ol' diet thing. The history of the issue:

On September 2, someone at church asked if I was pregnant. That marked the end of my 6-month "eat whatever I want" campaign, and I started dieting.

As of October 29, I'd lost 12.2 pounds. Unfortunately then came Halloween, and as everyone knows, Halloween = candy.

Here's what has transpired since that last update. I gained about 3 pounds after a 2-week candy binge, then lost about a pound after I began to eat more sensibly. So, for the math-impaired, my net loss is still around 10-10.5 pounds, and I'm holding steady. I'm not counting points, but I'm eating pretty well and allowing myself dessert on occasion without overdoing it. I can still fit into my skinny-ish jeans and all of my other pants that are that same size. Basically I'm at my average marriage weight. In January I may start counting points again because I would like to drop another 7-10 pounds, but I'm okay for now and I don't want to have to deprive myself of holiday goodies at Christmas! I plan to continue exercising occasionally, eating smaller-than-average portions, and maintaining my current weight through December.

* * * * *

In other image-related news, yesterday when I was dropping my girls off at preschool and I saw a girl from my old ward dropping off her niece ("girl" means any female up to at least my age or a few years older, since I still consider myself a girl -- this particular girl is I'm guessing 28-30); I didn't know her very well because they had moved into the ward only a couple months before we moved out, but we were VT companions for a short time. Anyway, I have seen her a couple times from a distance since we moved two years ago, but hadn't had a conversation. Yesterday it was face-to-face (and thankfully I remembered her name!) so we did talk. Her greeting to me: "Wow! You look SO different! Look at you! You're so cute and trendy!!"


I took a look at myself and wondered what her shock was over. I'm virtually the exact same size; I was wearing my glasses, which I only do about 1/3 of the time; I have bangs now which I probably didn't the last time she saw me (I've had them my whole life except a few years ago in a failed experiment to grow them out. Well it didn't fail; I grew them out successfully, but I can't stand the pictures of myself from that time... anyone who has seen the size of my forehead knows why... I was meant to have bangs for life).

Are the bangs the big difference? Was it the fact that I was wearing my new shoes yesterday? Seriously folks, not much has changed. It's a mystery. The point of my telling you this story is not brag about a compliment; it just makes me wonder what her impression of me was when we were in the same ward. I guess the opposite of cute & trendy?

Homely and old-fashioned: the Sara of 2005.

I guess sometimes we need to be careful with our compliments: telling someone that their new haircut or that their weight loss looks great, without gushing to the point of giving the impression that they looked awful before the change. If this girl hadn't acted so surprised at my appearance and thrown in the SO different! part, I'm sure I would've just accepted it as a compliment and not given it this degree of analysis.

Or I could just attribute it to the shoes. Which I'm apparently obsessed with...

Not much is new around here...

Except my shoes!

Sorry, I'm a little low on blogging ideas these days. You would think I would've posted something lately, given all the time I've been spending on the computer, online shopping & figuring out what Christmas presents everyone is getting. I'm pleased to report that I know what everyone is getting, I will be ordering most of it online, and the purchasing will be complete within the next couple of days. Wow, shopping completed by December 1st? That may be an all-time Christmas shopping record for me.

Is it possible that the month of December will be less stressful than usual?

Another successful FHE

If you click on it you can see better all the great stuff the kids are thankful for!

Happy Thanksgiving!

From 3 little pilgrim girls.

Presley (my niece), Zoe, and Lucy at their Preschool "Thanksgiving Feast" on Tuesday.

Joah, Jolly, Joey, & Jucy

Here they are watching for the garbage truck. The excitement is palpable! I couldn't resist the stair-step silhouette. And yeah, they made up those cool new names for themselves that afternoon when they were supposed to be cleaning their rooms. They have such a good time together!

Donovan saga update

Okay so most of you have not been aware of any such "saga." But since Halloween, we have seen more and more of young Mr. Donovan. Background: for the past 2 or 3 months he has lived about 4 houses down the street from us, he's 15, and likes to borrow Hubs' skateboards and bike. That was the extent of it. He was just a slightly annoying kid with an obvious lack of social skills and friends. When I teach piano I face out the living room window, right out to the street, and several times I've noticed Donovan popping wheelies right in front of our window, then glancing over to see if I'm watching. A little sad, really.

But lately we've seen more of him; not just hanging out in our driveway talking skateboards with Hubs, but teaching our kids how to ride his razor scooter, reminding our kids not to ride bikes/scooters in the street, helping them cross the street on occasion, etc. All in all, getting a little bit too friendly with the kids. Just to the extent that I think to myself, "It's probably harmless" but at the same time, not wanting to leave them outside alone with him because why does a 15-yr-old want to hang out with lil' tykes. Just this week, he has knocked on our door two different afternoons, asking if the kids are going to come out & ride bikes. Did I mention that he's 15, and they're 3, 3, 5, & 7. But still, he has a speech impediment and does seem slightly "challenged," as one neighbor put it, so maybe he's harmless.

Still, I'm glad that the house he lives in is for sale.

But then he told us that they're renting it, and the seller intends to sell it to another investor and that they will stay in it. Drat. (He concluded a long, meandering, half-coherent tale of tax write-offs and investments with, "Long story short, it's our house.)

Well today, as the kids were out riding bikes with the other 7 or 8 kids on our street, Donovan was noticeably absent. It was so nice; I could focus on watching for cars and kids riding out into the street, instead of my usual game of watching the teenager like a hawk.

A little bit of investigation on Hubs' part turned up quite a tale:

According to some other neighbors, Donovan's family (I think there's just a dad and a brother) moved out of their house last night.

At 3:00am.

Accompanied by a police car.

What?? I'm no legal expert but my rudimentary understanding of evictions is that they happen during regular hours under civil, law-abiding conditions. I guess that's only the way it is in naïve-land. I should check with my relative who is an expert in landlord/tenant law...

Another junior-high-aged neighbor boy also reported that "It's good they're gone. Donovan was not a good kid." Why? He has been suspended from school for sexual harrassment. He's been seen beating up his dog. He taught the S-WORD to the cute little 5-yr-old boy in the cul-de-sac. He may or may not have knocked over a neighbor's cactus in the dead of night after being told that it was inappropriate for him to hang out with the little neighborhood kids. Had I known these things before, my children would have been confined to the house or the backyard during these past couple weeks of lovely weather we've had.


But now he's gone. Let's hope it's for good.

Double news for Molly!

Check her out; riding with no training wheels!

(sorry for the poor video quality)

Loving her new haircut...

It's a whole new Molly!

Young Americans

The kids made these flags for our FHE activity on Monday night, in honor of Veterans Day. For our opening song we sang the Star-Spangled Banner, I told them the story of the night that song was written by Francis Scott Key, and we talked about appreciation for Veterans and what that means. While they worked on their flags, we listened to a recording of Battle Hymn of the Republic. This was a follow-up to our lengthy breakfast discussion about the Revolutionary War and World War II, in which I got into way too many details about the differences between the Pacific and European Theaters... and also it was a follow-up from our FHE last week, when we talked about "What can we do to help our country and community?"

I am sick and tired of the apathetic attitude that prevails in society with regard to the USA, and I for one plan to do all I can to raise children who love their country.

On Monday night, the kids were all so anxious to hang their flags on their bedroom doors, and I overheard them saying to each other, "This flag means that my room is for Americans!" And later, they came up with secret passwords to enter their own rooms: Molly's secret password was the Pledge of Allegiance, and Noah's was singing the Star-Spangled Banner. I couldn't be more proud!

Don't hassle the Hoff

I don't know what's more funny, the bizarre "special effects" or the fact that this is an actual music video. My favorite bit of randomness would have to be the alien guy that makes a couple of brief appearances. Long live the Hoff!

For anyone concerned with the facts: this song was originally written in 1969 and has been covered a few times; this version is from 1997. So totally awesome.

Noah's first quad experience

Noah and Aaron enjoyed a fun morning riding these; Aaron on my Dad's and Noah on our friend's kid-sized one (thanks Dana!). Good times!

Here's Noah in full quad-rider regalia:

They had a great time! Noah showed us at home how well he can ride the small one; he handles it great as long as the terrain is pretty even. Apparently this morning he went off the trail a couple times and ran over some bushes and cacti... but it all turned out just fine.

Random Fall Fun

A few shots of the kids enjoying themselves...

Noah & Molly on a Sunday afternoon, along with the ultimate Lincoln Logs Lodge. Lincoln Logs are perfect for Sunday afternoons!

Here are Noah and Molly on South Mountain one Saturday in October; you can see downtown Phoenix in the background.

I guess nobody ever told them that "riding double is double trouble?"

Lucy riding solo, enjoying the lovely weather. I don't envy those of you who are currently dealing with the cold and even snow! We DO love to visit the snow when we can, but as for living -- I'll take short-sleeves in November any day!

(Some people in this household may not agree with my statements on weather, so let the record show that I am speaking for myself, primary author of this blog, and sole contributor except for the time it was hijacked.)

Something entertaining for you

This is funny and so relatable. Check it out. It's a mom selling some Pokemon cards on Ebay, but her lengthy explanation as to WHY is really worth the read! And, it's paying off... she's getting lots of bids just for being such an entertaining writer!

Check it out HERE.

A narrative on the impossibility of me resisting piles and piles of candy

The kids won't mind if I eat a couple of these; I'll just be sure to only eat the ones they don't like. Like anything with nuts.

Although I'm pretty sure Zoe won't miss this 3 Musketeers; she seems to have a lot more candy in her pumpkin than the other kids. Maybe she got more for being the shortest?

So NOW I'll only eat the ones with nuts. Mmmm, Snickers really satisfies.

Hm. That Snickers was good but I don't want to be left with this peanutty taste in my mouth.

Let's try Baby Ruth. Delicious. Wait, still have that peanutty taste.

Better clear that out with a Crunch bar. Molly has at least 4 of these, she'll never miss it.

Tasty again but I need something more refreshing to end on.

Ah, a butter mint. My favorite. Really cleanses the ol' palate.

This was me one day this week from 1:30-1:40pm. Or I mean every day this week. The only difference is that sometimes there are some Almond Joy's or Reese's thrown into the mix...

Trick-or-Treating Pet Peeves

#1: Grown women, pushing a stroller which contains a child too young to eat candy and too young to say trick or treat, with a candy bucket sitting on the baby's lap, waiting for a handout. It's even better when the mom has her own candy bucket too. Arrrgh.

#2: Teenagers. If they went to a lot of trouble to dress up and seem to be genuinely into the fun of the holiday, fine. But I'm not fine with it when there's a conversation that goes like this:

Doorbell rings. I open it. Standing there is Donovan, a kid from down the street, wearing a black leather jacket, a huge chain around his neck, and a weird mask. On any other night I would not consider opening the door to such a character.

Donovan: Hey, what's up.

Me: Hey Donovan, nice costume.

(Donovan silently waits for some candy.)

Me: Aren't you going to say trick or treat??

Donovan: Hey man, I'm 15! That's not my thing.

Me: If you're too old to say trick or treat, maybe you're too old to be out trick or treating.

(Except I gave in and tossed a pack of smarties into his pillow case.)

#3: Pillow cases used as candy buckets.